Welcome back to the regular season! The Brewers kick off the second half of the season in Atlanta tonight. To get caught up on the NL East-leading Braves, read Nicole's series preview and then come back here for your game thread action.
Current Series
4 game series vs Braves @ Turner Field
| Milwaukee Brewers Thursday, Jul 15, 2010, 6:10 PM CDT Dave Bush vs Jair Jurrjens Mostly clear. Winds blowing in from right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 95. Complete Coverage > | ||
| Fri 07/16 | 6:35 PM CDT | |
| Sat 07/17 | 6:10 PM CDT | |
| Sun 07/18 | 12:35 PM CDT | |
Pitching matchups, lineups and more after the jump.
Tonight, Dave Bush and Jair Jurrjens take the mound as starters. Jurrjens has been on the disabled list for most of 2010 with a strained left hamstring and before that was recovering from shoulder and thumb injuries incurred during spring training. He's made two starts since coming off the DL and looks like he could be returning to his 2009 levels of performance. In his last start against Philadelphia, he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings on 2 hits and 3 walks. As noted in the series preview, he's only faced the Brewers once. Despite giving up 9 hits, he struck out 8 Brewers.
Dave Bush, on the other hand, has an astounding 4 career starts against Atlanta and he's done well in those. The problem is that he hasn't faced them since 2008. The only batters from the last Braves lineup he faced that remain on the team are Gregor Blanco, Brian McCann, and Omar Infante. (Chipper Jones and Jurrjens are still there, but didn't face him.) Alex Gonzalez and Eric Hinske have faced Bush before, but not with Atlanta.
Tonight's lineups:
| Milwaukee Brewers | Atlanta Braves |
| Rickie Weeks 2B | Martin Prado 2B |
| Corey Hart RF | Jason Heyward RF |
| Ryan Braun LF | Chipper Jones 3B |
| Prince Fielder 1B | Brian McCann C |
| Casey McGehee 3B | Troy Glaus 1B |
| Jim Edmonds CF | Eric Hinske LF |
| Jonathan Lucroy C | Alex Gonzalez SS |
| Alcides Escobar SS | Gregor Blanco CF |
| Dave Bush P | Jair Jurrjens P |
As seen in the lineup, Jason Heyward is off the DL, and Brandon Hicks has been sent down, per MLB.com's Mark Bowman (twitter.) Also according to Bowman, Eric O'Flaherty has been placed on the DL due to a viral infection and left-hander Mike Dunn (you may have seen him in the AAA All-Star Game) has been called up.
Everybody's had 3 days off so I hope the bullpen is rested enough. Knowing this bunch, they're probably rested too much.